arthur blythe

at the ass-end of the '70s, columbia signed this guy, an angeleno who'd made his name on the lower manhattan loft scene, and tried to promote him as the "next big thing" in jazz (before he was forgotten in the wake of wynton). i saw his "in the tradition" band with the great air riddim section of fred hopkins and steve mccall at town hall with old and new dreams in '79, but his best records were the ones where he employed bob stewart (whom i'd seen with sam rivers at stony brook, opening for mingus) on tuba (as he is in the clips below). both tunes are from arthur's lenox avenue breakdown alb. the next time i see thatun or especially illusions in the used vinyl bin, i'm definitely grabbing 'em.